U.S. Politics: Contempt and the Courts

[DMC]

1 minute ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Ah, you finally came around to that point of view. Been telling you for years.

I came around after 2018, it just didn't matter much in 2020 and, well, I'm lazy.  Florida sends me a ballot without even asking.

Anyway I did go to in-person voting once - in 2008 just to make sure my brother voted in Orlando.  It was at a library about half a mile away and the line was very long even though it was early voting (pretty sure on a weekend, but can't remember for sure).  Took about an hour IIRC.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

That's when Lex Luthor won the senate seat, right?

[DMC]

Just now, A Horse Named Stranger said:

That's when Lex Luthor won the senate seat, right?

Yeah.  I probably would've switched registration after 2016, but in 2018 the Florida governor and Senate races were obviously going to be much closer than the PA ones.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Another question concerning voting rights. (This one is more personal)

What is the longest time you’ve ever had to wait in line to vote?

Every election I see stories on the news about people who are forced to spend 6+ hours in line to cast their ballots. That is amazing / disgusting to me. 
 

I joined the military straight out of high school, so for six years I voted by mail well in advance of the election. 
 

In the seven years since I separated I’ve been voting at the middle school 5 miles from my home on election day. From getting out of my car to getting back in has never once crossed the 20 minute threshold. 

Every time except once I've been in and out in under 30 mins, typically closer to 15. The one time was the start of early voting in 2016. I live in a super liberal area and the line was about a block or so out of the building. Thankfully the polling station was well run so it only took a little over an hour.

57 minutes ago, DMC said:

I've never voted in person.  

That's a bit of a surprise. Do you have no interest in it? I know for myself I took a great deal of pride being 18 in '06 to physically go in and vote the bastards out of office. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

That's when Lex Luthor won the senate seat, right?

Kind of amazing that the country's biggest Medicare fraudster, a criminal to his core, has enjoyed two terms as governor and will now probably be senator for life.

Again, Florida........

[DMC]

4 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

That's a bit of a surprise. Do you have no interest in it? I know for myself I took a great deal of pride being 18 in '06 to physically go in and vote the bastards out of office. 

I would've liked to have voted in person in 2004, I just couldn't.  Same goes for 2006.  Man was I pumped for the Dems winning back Congress for the first time since I was 9 and didn't care.  By 2008 I was spending 10-20 hours a week volunteering for Obama, figured that was enough.  Since then, again, they send me the ballot without even asking and I'm lazy.  Although I have had to update addresses twice, that took like five minutes - both times!

[A True Kaniggit]

14 minutes ago, DMC said:

I would've liked to have voted in person in 2004, I just couldn't.  Same goes for 2006.  Man was I pumped for the Dems winning back Congress for the first time since I was 9 and didn't care.  By 2008 I was spending 10-20 hours a week volunteering for Obama, figured that was enough.  Since then, again, they send me the ballot without even asking and I'm lazy.  Although I have had to update addresses twice, that took like five minutes - both times!

Voting by mail is amazing. 
 

I did it in front of my computer, so I could do research on any candidate / proposition I was ignorant of.

[LongRider]

2 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

What is the longest time you’ve ever had to wait in line to vote?

2008 was the first-year voting machines were used in Reno, Nv.  I voted the last day of early voting and waited 5 hours in line inside a shopping center.  Longest time for me, makes me appreciate mail in voting.

[Zorral]

Nearly 7 hours in NO to vote for Kerry.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 minute ago, Zorral said:

Nearly 7 hours in NO to vote for Kerry.

 

Oof...

[ThinkerX]

2 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Another question concerning voting rights. (This one is more personal)

What is the longest time you’ve ever had to wait in line to vote?

Every election I see stories on the news about people who are forced to spend 6+ hours in line to cast their ballots. That is amazing / disgusting to me. 
 

I joined the military straight out of high school, so for six years I voted by mail well in advance of the election. 
 

In the seven years since I separated I’ve been voting at the middle school 5 miles from my home on election day. From getting out of my car to getting back in has never once crossed the 20 minute threshold. 

I always vote in person, almost always after work. Longest I ever spent was maybe fifteen minutes between arrival and departure. Then again, this is rural Alaska.

That said, about every fourth customer on the mail route - call it a hundred or so people - was a snowbird, and at least half of them voted absentee.  At least some of these people were Trump style conservatives who started parroting the line about how mail in ballots were subject to fraud - but that, of course, didn't apply to them. (they used a artificial (?) distinction between mail-in-ballots and 'legitimate' absentee voting)

[Mr. X]

2 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Another question concerning voting rights. (This one is more personal)

What is the longest time you’ve ever had to wait in line to vote?

I think I waited an hour once, and that was in NYC in November 2020 with the pandemic, the presidential election, and *waves hands at everything else* all going on.

I don't think I've voted by mail since college, and most of my in-person voting day experiences have been under 15 minutes.

To be fair, I've been teaching high school since the early 2000's and usually go to the voting site right when it opens at whatever stupid early time since I'm on my way to work anyway. That definitely cuts down on the wait times.

[ThinkerX]

I guess Governor Abbots sense of self-preservation finally kicked in. I was hoping he'd hold off for a month or three, would have made a good campaign issue. Still might.

 

Texas halts truck inspections that caused border gridlock | AP News

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday repealed his traffic-clogging immigration order that backed up commercial trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border, after a week of intensifying backlash and fears of deepening economic losses.

The Republican governor dropped his new rules that had required all commercial trucks from Mexico to undergo extra inspections to curb the flow of migrants and drugs and ratcheted up a fight with the Biden administration over immigration policy.

Some truckers reported waiting more than 30 hours to cross. Others blocked one of the world’s busiest trade bridges in protest.

Abbott, who is up for reelection in November and has made the border his top issue, fully lifted the inspections after reaching agreements with neighboring Mexican states that he says outline new commitments to border security. The last one was signed with the governor of Tamaulipas, who earlier this week said the inspections were overzealous and created havoc. On Friday, he joined Abbott and said they were ready to work together.

[A wilding]

8 hours ago, Zorral said:

Nearly 7 hours in NO to vote for Kerry.

 

Never fails to shock me. The "worlds greatest democracy" and people have to wait in line for hours to vote.

[DMC]

One of the top GOP candidates for Nebraska governor, businessman/megadonor Charles Herbster, has been accused by eight woman of groping or forcible kissing, including a Republican state senator.  While there's not much polling, Herbster appears to be the frontrunner in the Republican primary.  Also, if you're wondering, yes, Donald Trump has endorsed him.  The primary is May 10.

Oh, and to really class up the story, then there's this from a former Omaha mayor named Hal Daub, who's also endorsed Herbster:

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

You should get 30 days in the clink for asking what a potential victim was wearing. I cannot believe people are still doing this dumb shit.

[Ormond]

20 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Another question concerning voting rights. (This one is more personal)

What is the longest time you’ve ever had to wait in line to vote?

Every election I see stories on the news about people who are forced to spend 6+ hours in line to cast their ballots. That is amazing / disgusting to me. 
 

I joined the military straight out of high school, so for six years I voted by mail well in advance of the election. 
 

In the seven years since I separated I’ve been voting at the middle school 5 miles from my home on election day. From getting out of my car to getting back in has never once crossed the 20 minute threshold. 

If I remember correctly I had to wait in line at least 3 hours during the Ford-Carter Presidential election way back in 1976. And that was in really bad weather in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I lived in a precinct where the huge majority of the voters were university students and they had never had anywhere near the turnout before in an election in that precinct.  But that's my worst experience. I am sure I have never had to wait more than half an hour since. I've voted in Omaha, Nebraska since 1986. 

[Larry of the Lawn]

 

Longest I had to wait was probably 2012 Presidential near Storrs, CT.  Maybe a 20 minute wait.  

On the older machines with the switches and lever and curtain and all I also waited close to that for some state election in early 2000s.  

A friend who lived in Orlando reported waiting 6+ hours in 2004.  

Weirdest ballot experience was probably 2008 Presidential Election in San Diego, my designated voting location was a garage space off of an alley.  Just some folding tables, fill out the ballot with a pencil, and drop it into a literal cardboard box.  To this day I'm not sure if I actually voted or just participated in someone's weird electioneering LARP.

 

 

[Ormond]

9 hours ago, DMC said:

One of the top GOP candidates for Nebraska governor, businessman/megadonor Charles Herbster, has been accused by eight woman of groping or forcible kissing, including a Republican state senator.  While there's not much polling, Herbster appears to be the frontrunner in the Republican primary.  Also, if you're wondering, yes, Donald Trump has endorsed him.  The primary is May 10.

Oh, and to really class up the story, then there's this from a former Omaha mayor named Hal Daub, who's also endorsed Herbster:

 

Oh gosh I hadn't seen Daub's comment yet; read about Slama's statements in the paper this morning. 

I am chagrined to say that I know Hal Daub personally. I was a member of the same church he was between 2009 and 2014. He had grown up in that church and was much more conservative than the average member.  When that church merged with another larger and just as liberal church, he chose to transfer his membership somewhere else. There were some accusations years ago that Daub physically abused his first wife, but that didn't get a lot of publicity. 

The TV commercials Herbster and his main rival Pillen are running are just awful. Many are hoping that today's news will somehow allow the third major candidate, Brett Lindstrom, who is not quite as right-wing as Herbster and Pillen and seems to have at least some ethics, to eke out a primary win. I know Democrats who are rooting for Herbster to still win the primary in hopes that would give Carol Blood, the Democrat's candidate, a chance, but personally I hope LIndstrom somehow ekes out that win because I think he's about the best Nebraska can expect at this point in our history. 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 4/15/2022 at 2:59 PM, Larry of the Lake said:

I bet they extend pause till after the midterms, and then do nothing.  I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see them doing any broad cancellation, especially like the $10k off everyone that Biden said he was down for.  I bet we see more of the small forgiveness actions at the margins, maybe less scrutiny of the public service exemptions, and maybe a few new means tested, targeted relief efforts. 

Yeah, I don't see them canceling anything--including the meager 10,000 talked about on the campaign trail. I think at this point, it'd be a good thing if Biden kept up his campaign promise of working to fix bankruptcy laws so student loans can be discharged like other debt.